Elliott Investment Management tops the list of funds with the biggest UK short positions, at £1,871m across two positions, according to Research Tree. On Research Tree’s UK short interest tracker, viewed on Sunday 1 November, the top ten are drawn from 98 entries.
A short position is a bet that a share price will fall. For each holder, Research Tree lists the number of current short positions and the aggregate value of the shorted shares.
| Position holder | Number of current short positions | Shorted shares aggregate (£m) |
|---|---|---|
| Elliott Investment Management, L.P | 2 | 1,871 |
| ELLIOTT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION | 1 | 1,544 |
| Two Sigma Investments, LP | 24 | 1,309 |
| Kintbury Capital LLP | 14 | 1,126 |
| Marshall Wace LLP | 22 | 1,059 |
| GLG Partners LP | 62 | 933.8 |
| D. E. Shaw & Co. LP | 21 | 755.7 |
| AQR Capital Management, LLC | 22 | 748.8 |
| Millennium International Management LP | 12 | 746.5 |
| Ilex Capital Partners (UK) LLP | 10 | 705.8 |
The two Elliott entities are listed separately. On the table’s figures they come to £3,415m, or £3.4bn, from just three positions between them. GLG Partners sits at the other extreme, with the most positions of any holder shown (62) for £933.8m.
That contrast is the useful part. The size of a short book and the number of positions say different things. A few large positions may point to concentrated bets, while a book spread across dozens of positions may look more like a broad portfolio. That is an interpretation, since the table does not say which companies are shorted.
Research Tree says its data covers disclosed short positions and does not generally include positions below the 0.5% threshold. The FCA page describes a 0.2% reporting threshold for its aggregated reports.
Research Tree describes the data as sourced in real time from the FCA, but the tracker gives no date for the figures and does not explain how the £m aggregate is calculated.
The FCA says that under the short-selling regime in force since the 13th of July 2026 it publishes aggregated net short positions in which individual positions are anonymised and not disclosed. Research Tree does not explain how its named-holder breakdown relates to that publication, and the two descriptions are not reconciled here.
